To P3 or not to P3: A water industry view on the relevance of public-private partnership delivery models
This report, To P3 or not to P3: A water industry view on the relevance of public-private partnership delivery models, details how P3s benefit municipal utilities who don’t have the experience, capacity or confidence to deliver and maintain these assets using their existing staff and resources.
Public-private partnerships (P3), while no means a panacea for infrastructure delivery, offer distinct advantages to municipal water utilities in a range of circumstances. To date, P3s have been relatively limited in water, but the rationale for this is not always clear when it could be appropriately deployed to the public benefit.
To understand this better, the American Water Works Association and EY conducted a survey to gain insight into the perceptions of those directly involved in water service provision across the US.
Using the results of this survey, supplemented by our own experience of advising clients in the US water sector and commentary from key industry stakeholders, this report seeks to answer three key questions:
- What are the main drivers of interest in P3 as a delivery model?
- What are the key barriers to successfully pursuing P3 in water and how can these be overcome?
- Where is P3 likely to be most appropriately deployed in the US water sector going forward?
